Pathfinder - The Two-Weapon Warrior Fighter Handbook

Disclaimer

I will use content from the core rules, but will intentionally omit any content not published
on the official Pathfinder SRD due to the
unmanageable volume of non-SRD content, and the wildly varying quality of non-SRD content.
If you would like me to write handbooks for specific content not published on the official
SRD, please email me and I will consider it on a case-by-case
basis. I will use the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build
handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational.

Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances

Green: Good options.

Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character.

Temporary Note: Pathfinder Unchained and Occult Adventures were
both recently added to the SRD. I'm excited to explore them, and I am actively working
on adding their contents to my collection of handbooks. I appreciate your patience while
I make these changes.

Introduction

Like any TWF build, the Two-Weapon Warrior depends on making multiple attacks with
low individual damage. Compared to a TWF Rogue, the Two-Weapon Warrior has better AC
and a higher attack bonus, but typically falls short in terms of damage. By making
some clever choices, we can greatly close the damage gap between the TWF Rogue
and the Two-Weapon Warrior.

The Fighter's high BAB grants the Two-Weapon Warrior the highest number of attacks
possible, making it an obvious choice for critical hit builds. By combining Two-Weapon
Fighting and critical hit optimization, we can count on frequent critical hits with
sizable bonus damage.

Fighter Class Features

Hit Points: d10 hit points like nearly every other
front-line class.

Base Attack Bonus: Full BAB.

Saves: Good fortitude saves, but many fighters have
major problems with Reflex and Will saves. The Two-Weapon Warrior depends heavily on
Dexterity, so your Reflex saves may match or exceed your Fortitude saves depending on
your build.

Proficiencies: All armor and shields, include Tower shields,
and martial weapons. The fighter has a huge variety of options, and with plenty of bonus
feats they can supplement these options with exotic weapon proficiency.

Skills: Likely the worst skill list in the game, and Fighters
often dump intelligence to 7. 2+ skill ranks is almost nothing, but many fighters still
can't find a good way to use all of their skill ranks.

Bonus Feats: Bonus feats are why most people play a Fighter
(or at least take a class dip). With a feat at level one and another at every even-numbered
class level, the Fighter gets a total of 22 feats by level 20 (23 for humans), giving
you a dizzying number of options. On top of this, the fighter gets a free retraining
option every 4 levels which allows you to pick up feats with high prerequisites by
trading in low-level feats which aren't paying off anymore. Do silly things like trade
in Toughness for Improved Critical at level 8.

Bravery (Ex): Situational. This ability is replaced by
almost every Fighter archetype.

Weapon Mastery (Ex): Absolutely fantastic. Making critical
hits more reliable provides a massive boost to your damage, and you can retrain Critical
Focus if you haven't taken any critical feats.

Two-Weapon Warrior Features

Defensive Flurry (Ex): It's a bit cruel that this isn't
just a normal dodge bonus to AC when you full attack. Still, most attacks against you
will be melee attacks, and you will (hopefully) be full attacking most of the time.

Twin Blades (Ex): Basically weapon training when you
full attack. It's unfortunate that it doesn't apply to attacks of opportunity,
charges, or Doublestrike, but it works when you need it most.

Doublestrike (Ex): This slightly alleviates your issue
with movement, but still limits you to a single move. You don't get the attack and damage
bonus from Twin Blades, so try to full attack as much as possible.

Improved Balance (Ex): If you're using a light weapon in
your off hand, this is a +1 to your attacks. If you choose to use two one-handed weapons
(excluding Sawtooth Sabres) this is a +2 to both of your attacks.

Equal Opportunity (Ex): You effectively get two attacks on
an attack of opportunity, which is absolutely fantastic. This is also your only
Defender ability, so be sure to capitalize on this as much as possible.

Perfect Balance (Ex): If you're using a light weapon in your
off hand or using a double weapon, you no longer have two-weapon fighting penalties.
If you're using a one-handed weapon in your off hand, you don't get anything new.

Deft Doublestrike (Ex): A free disarm, sunder, or trip
attempt is nice, but you're probably not built for it. At this level, your chances of
success with trip or disarm aren't great unless you're already built for it, and sunder
isn't useful often enough to matter.

Deadly Defense (Ex): I hope you brought combat expertise.
To capitalize on this, you may actually want to drop your AC, but dropping your AC may
make you worse as a Defender. It's a weird trade-off, and it's difficult to introduce this
late in the game because of its implications for your build and tactics.

Compatible Archetypes

Gladiator: Only useful if you use the performance
combat rules.

Abilities

The high Dexterity requirements for Two-Weapon Fighting feats make the Two-Weapon
Warrior somewhat MAD. You can get away with as little as 17 if you don't want Greater
Two-Weapon Fighting, but more is better because you will want to use Weapon Finesse.

Str: Unless you want Power Attack (not recommended),
you only need a bit of Strength for the easy damage. 14 is plenty.

Dex: Dexterity is everything for the Two-Weapon Warrior.
AC, saves, and attacks on one ability.

Con: Like any melee character, hit points are crucial
for the Two-Weapon Warrior.

Int: The Fighter skill list is garbage. Dump to 7.

Wis: Only useful for Will saves, but certainly don't
dump it.

Cha: Dump to 7.

25 Point Buy

20 Point Buy

15 Point Buy

Elite Array

Str: 14

Dex: 18

Con: 14

Int: 7

Wis: 14

Cha: 7

Str: 13

Dex: 18

Con: 14

Int: 7

Wis: 13

Cha: 7

Str: 13

Dex: 17

Con: 14

Int: 7

Wis: 13

Cha: 7

Str: 13

Dex: 15

Con: 14

Int: 10

Wis: 12

Cha: 8

Races

Dexterity bonuses are critical, but beyond that other bonuses can offer interesting
options beyond the core of your build. Medium size is nice because you can permanently
reduce yourself to Small size for another free +2 to Dexterity, but small size won't
ruin you.

Dwarf: The Dwarf makes a great Defender, but its lack
of Dexterity doesn't offer anything useful to the Two-Weapon Warrior.

Elf: Beyond the bonus to Dexterity, the Elf offers
nothing useful to the Two-Weapon Warrior.

Gnome: Small, no bonus to Dexterity, and none of the
Gnome's racial abilities add anything useful for the Two-Weapon Warrior.

Half-Elf: The default Half-Elf's racial bonuses are
mostly useless to the Two-Weapon Warrior, but the Half-Elf has a lot of great options
for alternate racial abilities, and the flexible ability bonus is always nice. Trade
in Adaptability for Ancestral Arms to get proficiency with the Falcata or Sawtooth
Sabre if you plan to use them.

Half-Orc: Darkvision and a flexible ability bonus
are always nice. The Half-Orc gets proficiency with the Orc Double Axe, which can
be a nice option, and the Half-Orc has a lot of great options for alternate racial
abilities.

Halfling: Small size gives a welcome bonus to both
attacks and AC, and the Dexterity bonus is excellent. The Halfling's alternate
racial abilities are nice, especially Fleet-Footed.

Human: Two-Weapon Fighting is a feat-heavy build, and
one extra feat gets out build up an running one level sooner.

Skills

Climb (Str): Too situational.

Handle Animal (Cha): Only useful for mounted builds, and
other classes (like the Cavalier or Paladin) do mounter combat much better.

Intimidate (Cha): The fighter's only social skill,
and some builds can work Intimidate into combat.

Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int): One of the best
Knowledge skills. Unfortunately the Fighter's poor Intelligence will hurt your
bonus.

Knowledge (engineering) (Int): Too situational.

Ride (Dex): Only useful for mounted builds, and
other classes (like the Cavalier or Paladin) do mounter combat much better.

Survival (Wis): Situational.

Swim (Str): Too situational.

Feats

Blind Fight: Misses chances are a huge pain, and
taking Blind Fight can give you a major advantage while under effects like Fog Cloud
or Darkness.

Combat Reflexes: The Two-Weapon Warrior has enough
Dexterity for Combat Reflexes to pay off, but because individual attacks are weak,
the Two-Weapon Warrior's attacks of opportunity aren't a great deterrant.

Critical Focus: The +4 bonus will make your critical
hits much more reliable, especially with your iterative attacks.

Blinding Critical: Permanently blinding the
target can hugely inhibit their ability to kill you, and could significantly
drop their AC.

Critical Mastery: You absolutely need this
if you want to use critical feats.

Deafening Critical: Only affects spellcasters,
and even then only sometimes.

Sickening Critical: Sickened is a decent
status condition, especially if you have a spellcaster in the party, but
it's not going to help you a whole lot. It's available very early, which
makes it a great choice to retrain at level 12 or 16.

Staggering Critical: Staggering an enemy
is great if they depend on full attacking.

Stunning: Rob your enemy of an entire turn,
force them to drop their weapons, and their AC drops considerably.

Tiring Critical: Fatigued is pointless.

Exhausting Critical: Exhausted is
only marginally better than Fatigued.

Hammer the Gap: The biggest advantage of Two-Weapon
Fighting is getting a lot of attacks. This adds a scaling on-hit damage bonus that
will grow in effectiveness as you get more attacks. Wait until you have at least
Improved Two-Weapon Fighting so that the bonus is worthwile.

Power Attack: Two-Weapon Fighting already imposes
penalties to your attacks, so it is often difficult to justify Power Attack.

Quick Draw: Drawing both of your weapons quickly
can be a problem.

Two-Weapon Fighting: The most important feat to
the Two-Weapon Warrior.

Double Slice: Literally never.

Improved Two-Weapon Fighting: More attacks
means more damage.

Greater Two-Weapon Fighting: More
attacks, more damage. However, you may have a lot of trouble hitting
at -10, so this isn't essential.

Weapon Finesse: Crucial.

Slashing Grace: Doesn't work with Two-Weapon
Fighting.

Weapon Focus: A +1 to hit is always nice, and
helps make up the two-weapon fighting penalties.

Greater Weapon Focus: Another +1 to hit.

Penetrating Strike: DR is always annoying,
and with no magical options it can be hard for the Fighter to overcome
many types of DR. DR is especially troublesome for TWF builds because
it applies more times.

Greater Penetrating Strike: Ignore
even more DR. By this level, DR 10/* is very common.

Weapon Specialization: +2 damage is great
for TWF builds which rely on large numbers of relatively weak attacks.

Greater Weapon Specialization: Another
+2, but faces the same issues as Weapon Specialization.

Weapons

Double Weapons: Generally sub-par, especially because
you eventually get Equal Opportunity, which removes the need to use double weapons
to make two-handed opportunity attacks.

Falcata: 19-20/x3 critical hits is arguably the best
critical stats in the game. With Improved Critical you threaten on 20% of attacks,
and the triple damage is fantastic. The only downside is that Falcata are exotic,
but the Fighter has plenty of feats to throw around, and since they don't work with
Weapon Finesse you need both Strength and Dexterity to make them work.

Kukri: Like a small scimitar, the Kukri is has 18-20
crits, but doesn't impose the attack penalty for using two medium-sized weapons.

Rapier: If you plan to use two one-handed weapons,
the Rapier is your best bet. Of course, the extra damage compared to kukris is
pitiful, so Kukri is really your best bet.

Scimitar: Similar to Falcata, but you don't need to
spend a feat for proficiency, and the investment in two abilities doesn't pay off
as well because the weapon isn't as good.

Spiked Shields: Shield Mastery makes dual-wielding
shields a fun option, and using shields trades an emphasis on critical hits for an
emphasis on AC. If you want to dual-wield shields, you may also consider the
the Shielded Fighter archetype or a Ranger or Slayer with the Two-Weapon Fighting
combat style.

Sawtooth Saber: Not worth a feat.

Armor

Armor is presented in the order in which you should acquire it, rather than
alphabetical order.

Studded Leather: Expect to start with high Dexterity,
making Studded Leather your go-to option. Unfortunately your AC will only 18 at
level 1 (19 if you're small), but with decent Constitution you should be able to
take a few hits.

Leather: If you stumble on a suit of enhanced
leather armor, feel free to upgrade. Otherwise, don't spend money on it. Maximum
Dexterity Bonus only matters when calculating AC, so switching from studded leather
to leather won't be an improvement.

Mithral Shirt: Mithral Shirt will be your best bet
for AC until your Dexterity bonus hits +10, which will be extremely high level.

Mithral Breastplate: If you go for a build with
some Strength, your Dexterity will probably be low enough that you can get away
with Mithral Breastplate.

Haramaki: Strictly better than padded armor. With
no maximum dexterity bonus, you can afford to make your Dexterity absurdly high
without restriction, and can still keep enhancing your armor. You won't want to
upgrade until your dex onus hits +10.

Magic Items

Multiclassing and Prestige Classes

The Two-Weapon Warrior gets everything that it needs, and the high level abilities
are very good. Multiclassing isn't recommended.

Swashbuckler: Swashbuckler Finesse is considerably
better than Weapon Finesse, and a level will save you a feat, but it also delays
your Fighter abilities. Unless you're planning to use weird weapons like Heavy
Picks, you'll probably do better to just stick to Fighter. Slashing Grace is a
tempting option, but it only works while you have an empty hand.